As squatting rates rise, the incentive to develop property and rent it out plummets. (File photo by ANNA ZIEMINSKI / AFP)
Why should illegal squatters have more rights than property owners who have worked hard to purchase and maintain their property?
Technically, they don’t. Yet, as the law in action stands, squatters seem to be able to run roughshod over not just private property owners and landlords, but even local governments.
A community near to where I live has recently finally seen the end of a long struggle with squatting tenants. The tenants were dangerous drug addicts, with reports that they would steal from neighbours and manipulate sympathetic members of the community for charity.
Earlier this year, the court ordered the squatters to vacate a house that they had been squatting in rent-free for over three years.
The story gets worse.
The landlord was sympathetic to their condition and offered cash incentives amounting to tens of thousands of rands for the squatters to vacate the premises. The squatters refused.
After law enforcement eventually evicted them, they proceeded to squat on the side of the road, erecting a shack on another private citizen’s verge.
Their pit bull was kept off a leash, when it wasn’t being beaten in the open, and would chase home owners and renters as they walked their dogs.
It took weeks for law enforcement to finally demolish the shack and evict the squatters, again.
This is because the squatters were able to manipulate ineffectual officials and police officers by telling them sob stories and downright lying about waiting on a mishmash of bureaucratic decisions to be made.
After the landlord was able to regain control of his property, he found that everything had been stolen. Wiring, metal, the geyser, sinks, toilets. Everything.
His recourse? Nothing. Law enforcement refuses to do anything. The process has been so exhausting that it just isn’t worth pursuing criminal action. And civil action? There’s nothing to take in a lawsuit.
There are stories like this throughout South Africa. We’re trained to feel sympathetic. And perhaps we should. To a point.
The fact of the matter is that there are plenty of people who have been dealt worse cards than many squatters – yet they don’t use that as an excuse to commit a crime. And squatting is and should be a crime seen as equivalent to downright theft. Perhaps, even worse.
The rate of squatting tenants, according to the TPN Squat Index, has risen from 3.48% to 3.71% since the end of 2023. While we can easily detest landlords for doing their job, at the end of the day it is their property that they have purchased and invested in. No one has a right not to pay the agreed upon rent.
As squatting rates rise, the incentive to develop property and rent it out plummets. This means fewer homes for people across the board, which means higher rent for the homes that remain, as supply can’t keep up with demand.
As the legislation stands, it is unlawful for landlords to evict tenants who refuse to pay rent. A court order is required for eviction.
This can be a costly endeavour that can take years. In the aforementioned example, it took three years to get a court order, and months have it executed.
In another case, a landlord and her husband spent R17 000 on lawyers while trying to evict tenants who owed over R80 000 in rent and utilities. The tenants were still not evicted.
Another landlord was owed R81 000 in unpaid rent, and another R57 000 in water and electricity. They spent R40 000 on legal fees and still have still not received a court date.
While there is a reason to disallow the summary eviction of squatters without a court order, the process needs to be changed. Victims should not be required to pay a hefty amount in legal fees and wait an inordinate amount of time just to kick what amounts to a criminal trespasser from their land.
The process needs to be streamlined. Showing the lease agreement to law enforcement, and proof of non-payment should be enough to evict squatters. It shouldn’t take longer than a month to get a lawful eviction.
So is there a long-term solution to the squatting problem in South Africa?
For mass squatting on public land, the Democratic Alliance (DA) proposed Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Amendment Bill should help. It makes organised efforts to unlawfully occupy land illegal. Something that should already be a crime.
The bill also makes other provisions to make the process more streamlined and equitable towards the municipality trying to evict illegal tenants.
But how do we stop the need to squat in the first place? For the case of the addicts in my anecdote, and many of the entitled criminals in the cases above, we need streamlined legal processes to disincentivise non-payment.
But for mass illegal land occupation, we need reforms that enable people to be able to afford to pay rent.
Addressing unemployment by liberalising the economy will go a long way.
Make it easier for people to start and do business, and make it easier to hire and fire workers.
Trade unions need to butt out of many aspects of business, as they actively stop companies from wanting to hire workers. Additionally, BEE needs to be scrapped, as it holds back any businesses’ desire to grow.
As businesses grow their operations, and are no longer held back by strenuous labour regulations, they will hire more people – providing more incomes.
On top of this, thought should be given to re-zone more areas into housing. Unnecessary and bloated office blocks should be investigated to see if they can be transformed into far more useful apartments.
Crushing the construction mafias through surgical law enforcement strikes and removal of enabling legislation would also aid in development of more homes.
Overall, what is important is the protection of property rights. Without guarantees that our property will lawfully remain our own, there is no incentive to invest, to save, or to prosper.
Nicholas Woode-Smith is an economic historian, political analyst, author of over twenty books and a senior associate of the Free Market Foundation.